Bufab buys Swedish C-parts producer and distributor Rudhäll Industri

Bufab has acquired Swedish company Rudhäll Industri AB including its three wholly owned subsidiaries.

Rudhäll was founded in 1952 and has annual sales of approximately SEK 210 million. The Rudhäll Group is a producer and distributor of components and other C-parts to the Swedish and European markets, specialised in advanced machined components. It consists of three units in Sweden and one in China. Approximately half of the total sales comes from distribution and the rest to in-house production.

The group has been owned and run by current MD Jesper Emanuelsson since 2004. Under his leadership, the company has expanded organically and via acquisitions as an international supply chain partner to customers across many industries. In 2017, Rudhäll Group had 74 employees and sales of approximately SEK 210 million with a 9% normalised operating margin.

“It gives me great pleasure to announce that Rudhäll Group is joining the Bufab Group,” Johan Lindqvist, MD Bufab Sweden AB and segment director Bufab Segment Sweden. “Rudhäll Group is known as a strong niche player in the Swedish and European markets. Over the past one and a half years, we have gotten to know Jesper and his team well, and see great similarities with Bufab in their solution-oriented, entrepreneurial approach to creating customer value. We are confident that the Rudhäll Group will continue to grow and thrive as a member of the Bufab Group. At the same time, we think that the acquisition will further strengthen Bufab’s offering to our customers with enlarged product portfolio, additional in-house production know-how as well as increased sourcing capabilities in China.”

Jesper Emanuelsson, MD of Rudhäll and Rudhäll Group, added: “By joining Bufab, we will be able to continue to improve our customer service and grow our business in the same way we have for many years, but now with increased resources. It will be business as usual, with the same high ambition level. I am pleased to continue as Managing Director of Rudhäll, and together with the whole team I look forward to the cooperation with the Bufab team globally.”

The acquisition will be financed within Bufab’s existing credit facilities. In total, Bufab will book acquisition-related costs of approximately 5 MSEK in Q3 2018.

I joined Torque as Editor with over a decade’s experience in publishing. I’ve worked as Editor across two different B2B magazines in the past 10 years and in more junior publishing roles before then, including advert copywriting and a stint at a local newspaper. Prior to Torque, I’ve written for the bicycle sector and the video games industry.